Medewerkers van de Wolseley Motor Company in de Ward End Works, de fabriek in Birmingham 1932

F.R. Logan created this photograph of the Wolseley Motor Company workers at Ward End Works, in Birmingham. The image is a symphony of grey tones, each worker a note in the industrial chorus. I'm struck by the textures Logan captures, you can almost feel the grease and grit under your fingernails just by looking at it. The details in the foreground feel close, and the figures in the background are swallowed up in a sort of atmospheric perspective. Look at the overhead pipes, a tangle of lines. It’s almost abstract, like a drawing made with string. It reminds me of a spider's web, each thread connecting to the next, just as each worker contributes to the final product. The photograph shares a spirit with the industrial landscapes of Charles Sheeler. Both artists see beauty in the geometry of the machine. Art, like labor, is about transforming something raw into something meaningful. It’s about the process. We are all just cogs in the machine, or threads in the web, right?